honestly. there is such thing as a dumb question.
 

maybe not in a classroom environment, where you don't want to crush the inquisitive mind.

but in the real world?. yea. there are dumb questions.

they are raining on me this morning, and i have only been at the office for 1 hour.

oh boy.

Oh no, plenty of dumb questions in the classroom. My answer is typically "That was covered in the readings I assigned 3 weeks ago to get you ready for this unit". Then I grab my RTFM coffee cup and take a slurp and carry on with class.

Are the dumb questions from some people in your office?

Some. Phone calls and Contractors.

I’m full of coffee now. Ready to answer them. Maybe ask a few doozies myself.

Priceless.

If I ever get to a point where I give lectures on something, I will flash this on the wall as my last presentation picture, then state "Okay... This is the questions and answers portion of my presentation. Are there any questions from the audience? No? Okay. Well, have a nice day! "

My 10th grade Trig teacher summed it up. There are no stupid questions! Only Stupid people!

My engineering degree is from UH (vs my Economics i.e. party degree from UT) and UH being a commuter school gets a lot of older students. Older students tend to ask more questions because they don't care what others think. So you end up with older engineering students asking stupid questions and it's the same people you hear class after class, semester after semester. Imagine how happy we were when a professor told one of these students that nobody else cared about their questions so don't ask any more :D

thanks RED. i'm gonna have my sign shop make me that on a street sign!

I was walking the studio lot today with one of our Art Dept Coordinators (Millennial chicks with pink or purple highlights in their hair to be "different") and someone fires up a generator and startles her.

Her: Oh, he's using one of those things that make electricity! They're loud!

Me: Yeah, it's a gas powered generator..

Her: But where does the electricity come from?

Me: (stunned silence)

^^^ LOL...you blew it...a teachable moment...and you froze ;)

So here’s the thing about that...

I was the guy that asked a lot of questions in school. I still do, every single day.

I think being inquisitive has aided me significantly as an engineer and innovator. I’ve had (and continue to have) a very successful career. I ask questions because I don’t have all of the answers.

Of course there are stupid questions. With a planet full of stupid people it is to be expected. Among engineers one would think the stupid questions to be more complex but not that unusual overall.

We have had some engineers order a aerial flight, that we flew to specifications of the bid proposal.
We deliver a 3 GB geo-tiff file and then they ask us how to open it in Word, or Paint. :eek:

I ask a lot of questions too but imagine in this case a significantly overweight (not that there's anything wrong with that in itself), house wife looking lady, who is probably in over her head taking engineering courses in the first place, asking questions that are beyond obvious and doing it over and over and over.

I still take the occasional refresher course. I find people ask questions they already know the answer to. That way they answer themselves.

I am a heritage interpreter. I spend my days explaining the workings of a tidal power plant to all sorts of folks, from engineers to people who may not know what passing magnets by coils of wire will do.
Usually, if I am getting questions on something I just covered, I know I have not met the needs of our visitors.
That said, some people grasp concepts faster than others.
Best
Les

Rather someone ask you a stupid question than give you a stupid look and walk way. (This is at work)

I went on a tour of the National Weather Service in Norman, OK yesterday. It was a group of all retired people (except me) and the lady doing the tour was stumped on a few occasions on questions someone from the group asked. She said no one had asked that before. The great part, she could ask one of the pros there and they had the answer. One question was who writes the software for the computer models for weather that the TV stations use to make the forecasts for the week.

It was a fun tour of an interesting place.

LOL...sending that to my brother in Lake Worth. Retired EE from FPL. Anal as hell! :D